G is for Goals

I sometimes share goals on this blog, often as a part of the weekly Goal Planning Monday meme on Real Life Unscripted.

Yesterday afternoon, I was walking home from the pool, trying to mentally compose this week's goals, and I started thinking about why I make goals and what difference they make for my life.

I thought about how I set a goal back in January of 2011 to become a runner. I had already started running and could comfortably run about 3 miles at a time. Several of my online friends and I challenged each other to run a mile a day for the entire year. I ran. I kept track of my miles. When I hurt my knee in October, I had already run 365 miles.

I don't have a running goal anymore. I have a "runner girl" magnet on the back of my van, but that magnet doesn't make me a runner. Putting on my tennis shoes and running makes me a runner. I need a goal to shoot for if I'm going to ever get back into a running routine.

Goal #1 for this week: Find time to go run one time between now and Sunday evening.

This year I have a goal to finish reading the Bible in a year. I likely would have given up a few months ago when I got behind in the daily readings, except I didn't want to admit that I was a quitter. Perhaps that's why making goals is good for me -- I'd rather buckle down and work harder than to admit that I gave up.

Goal #2 for this week: Catch up and stay caught up with my daily Bible reading assignments. (I think I'm a day or two behind right now.)

The rest of my goals for this week involve unpacking and putting away things around the house. This morning I set a short-term goal of unpacking ten book boxes. Maybe my goal for the rest of the week will be to put away the things I took out of those boxes.

Goal #3: Unpack, purge, organize, and put away the rest of the things in the moving boxes (and especially everything that got tossed around the house without getting put away in a permanent home).

Goal #4 for this week: Take care of the pomegranates in the refrigerator before they start to spoil. The one I cut up yesterday was delicious, and I need to fix some to eat right away and some to freeze for later.

I might only have four goals this week, but I think it will be a busy week. Hopefully I set my goals low enough that I can achieve them but challenging enough that I can look back at what I accomplished this week.

I'm linking this post up with other Goal Planning Monday posts at Real Life Unscripted and also with the Blogging Through the Alphabet challenge at Ben and Me. Be sure to stop by either place (or both) to read other inspiring blogs or to join in the fun!